We’re talking about diversity in the skeptical community again, this time occasioned by some unfortunate and ignorant comments from Michael Shermer about atheism and skepticism being “a guy thing”, which […]
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Last weekend I published a post titled, “The World is Getting Worse (And Other Lies)” in which I shared some inspiring data and anecdotes that have helped me to embrace […]
The killing of 20 schoolchildren in Newtown, Connecticut has shocked a nation that had become numb to violence. Is it even possible to make sense of such a horrendous crime? Michael Stone, […]
If art is designed to provoke the passions, it does not confine itself to the pleasant ones.
As speculations over the future of Hillary Clinton mount, her tenure at the U.S. Department of State is – seemingly – drawing to a conclusion, leaving behind a very distinguishable […]
Most speakers already know how online life has changed the language. What many may not be aware of is the growing effect of hybrids such as “Hinglish” and “Konglish” that, pre-Internet, were confined to specific groups.
A newly published study examining moral beliefs among self-described liberals, moderates and conservatives reveals that liberals are the worst at stereotyping other groups as well as their own.
StraighterLine, a supplier of low-cost online college courses, recently unveiled a new service that allows professors to sell their courses to students and offer amenities, such as office hours, for an additional price.
A team of designers and programmers are creating an iconography for online privacy that would display warnings about individual sites when you enter them.
All throughout this year, I’ve been hearing people excitedly claiming that December 21, 2012, one week from today, will be the date of some major world event. Amusingly, the many […]
Weiwei-isms distills Ai Weiwei’s thinking on the topics of individual rights and freedom of expression.
How confident are scientists that world won’t end on December 21? Here’s a Neil deGrasse Tyson tweet from several weeks ago: Tyson is not alone. NASA scientists are also so […]
US officials continue to maintain as they have publicly for some time that in Yemen the US is only targeting the top 10-15 leaders of AQAP, whom it believes are […]
Close to one-fifth of the world has no access to a power grid, and for many others, access is spotty and inconsistent. A New York startup now offers an affordable, lightweight solution.
Scientists have succeeded in shaping a solar cell into a fiber that’s flexible enough to be woven into a fabric that can be used to power an electronic device.
It’s that time of the year again when techno pundits are once again breathlessly telling us all about the technology and innovation trends that will be big in 2013. That’s […]
Smug confidence in human reason, and the belief that once fully educated and informed people will then make the objectively ‘right’ decision about risk, only widens the gap and increases the danger.
Like X-rays, terahertz frequencies see through items, but most machines that use them are large and costly. Two engineers have found a way to shrink the technology onto a chip.
So you really have to hand it to The Atlantic. It’s the magazine that’s “thinking outside the box” (I actually hate that phrase; anyone who uses it can be found […]
The iTube is a device that attaches to a smartphone and uses its camera and an accompanying app to perform a lab-quality food allergen test.
By substituting a common plant dye for the metals used to extract lithium, researchers say many of the environmental hazards associated with production and disposal can be avoided.
Imagine walking into a 1,300-year-old Buddhist cave carved from a cliff overlooking a stretch of the ancient Silk Road in Dunhuang, China. You point your flashlight and frescoes showing musicians […]
As machines become more productive, the people who own them may be keeping a larger share of the profits.
In a recent post, Victor Cha, the former director for Asian Affairs at the National Security Council, warned of the dangers of viewing North Korea’s supreme leader Kim Jong-un in caricature. Kim […]
NASA’s Cassini has taken the first-ever high-resolution shot of a river and its tributaries on a planetary body that’s not Earth.
Now that Pope Benedict XVI has joined the Twitterverse, we will see how the pontiff wields the power of 140 characters. Early signs are only moderately encouraging. Before he started […]
It’s hard to know what leads lemmings to race willfully to their own demise. But I’ve come to believe that the suicidal tendencies embedded in American tax and fiscal policy […]
In our increasingly overloaded lives today we need shortcuts, or rules of thumb, to guide our decision-making.
Improvisation, creates “a set of experiences that allow you to fine-tune and hone all of the necessary skills needed to think on your feet and simply react and adapt.”
The American Gut Project is an open-source, community effort to better understand the diversity of our microbiomes.